Conjuring Marxism
“What time is it Mister Wolf?”
“It’s Three o'clock!"
“What time is it Mister Wolf?”
“It’s six o'clock!"
“What time is it Mister Wolf?”
“It’s eight o'clock!"
“What time is it Mister Wolf?”
“It’s dinner time!"
Modern times (15) slip through the gears of past time’s celestial clock, a breakdown in order prefigures the new Depression; they’re out to get the middle class this time.
It’s time to take a register of all the actors present. Of all the revolutionaries only Houdini has a script, the others wait to watch the act he plans; a transposition with his mage Houdin. Nietzsche is happy knitting in the aisle, he will improvise when the time comes, he is very aware that convictions are more dangerous than lies (16) and that these conjurations will be no more than entertainment. Gurdjieff believes that the whole company is still in a state of a waking sleep and shapes a levitation trick for the evening’s events. Marx himself is still rehearsing his illusion of penetration, something he has learnt from Hegel, who himself will undertake prediction as an entertaining conundrum.
The opening act is Freddy and the Dreamers, strains of their hit song, "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody", drift from the rehearsal room.
The media removes all authentic phenomena, without phenomena (observation in perception) there is no essence, without essence (soul) there is no religion. If an observation is made, it changes reality, therefore the media instead of it being a technology of change, is in fact the technology of repression and stasis.
These specters are the ghosts of the Avant Garde, forward scouts, spying out the enemy and checking for ambush. As full-time military men they know what it is to put a shine on their boots. For some time now they have been in dispute with the ruling powers but maximum profit for minimum effort is something they can also appreciate. The Avant Garde has always believed in the existence of an antithetical Sisyphus, no labour and constant reward.
For Camus, Sisyphus is the hero, Prometheus like he stands for honest toil, bridging the gulf between man and Gods, human in his sin and if we are to imagine him happy; revolt his precondition.
In each downfall lies the possibility of moral greatness. In each triumphant claim of victory lies a lack of conscience.
The sound of American music echoes in the hall, the players stand to dance, as a small white dog (17) parades under the spotlight; it appears to be a familiar.
15 Chaplin, C (1936) Modern Times USA: United Artists
16 Nietzsche (2008) Human, all too Human, London: Wordsworth The full quote is: “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies”
17 Dogmatix is a tiny white dog who belongs to Obelix in the Asterix comics. Dogmatix is a pun on the words dog and dogmatic. In the original French his name is Idéfix, itself a pun on the French expression idée fixe (fixed idea) meaning an obsession.
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